Advanced Television

STB

Google unveils Android TV

Google has unveiled its new TV service – Android TV. Combining games, streaming services, music and catch-up services, the device will take on the likes of Amazon’s Fire TV and Apple TV. Google’s David Burke outlined the new platform during developer conference Google I/O, saying the company wanted to treat TV the same as phones […]

June 26, 2014

Google set to unveil Android STB

Google is expected to unveil a set-top box during its developer conference on June 26th, according to WSJ. The streaming device will be similar to the likes of Roku, Amazon’s Fire TV and Apple’s Apple TV. The set-top box will be powered by Google’s new Android TV software designed to play movies, games and other […]

June 25, 2014

CASBAA lauds pirate STB raids

Recent successful raids by Hong Kong Customs on suppliers of a pirate TV box service should serve as a warning to all potential consumers of unauthorised TV services, according to Asia’s pay-TV association, CASBAA. “Buying a dodgy TV box is a bad deal for consumers,” said CASBAA’s Chief Policy Officer John Medeiros. “The content is […]

June 25, 2014By Colin Mann

NCTA disputes STB power claims

US cable industry trade body the National Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCTA) has reacted to a report in the LA Times which suggested that cable TV boxes have become second-biggest energy users in many homes, describing them as hogs that feed in the sleep. In a blog post, the NCTA notes that in March 2014, […]

June 23, 2014By Colin Mann

Italian consumers seek DVB-T2 postponement

Italian consumers association Adiconsum has requested that the mandatory introduction of decoders with DVB-T2 technology be postponed. According to existing regulations, from 1 January 2015, all TV equipment sold on the Italian market must have a mandatory DVB-T2 decoder for the transition to this technology of DTT broadcasts. Although Adiconsum recognises the need to switch […]

June 17, 2014From Branislav Pekic in Rome

Cable STB sales perk up in Q1

Procurement activity by North American cable operators has had a positive impact on the set-top box sector, according to market research firm Infonetics Research’s 1st quarter 2014 (1Q14) Set-Top Boxes and Pay TV Subscribers report, which tracks IP, cable, satellite, and digital terrestrial STBs and OTT media servers. “There was a pocket of strength

June 17, 2014

YouView faces trademark injunction

The High Court has ruled that YouView infringes a trademark owned by Total, an independent telecommunications company based in the South West. YouView TV Limited is a joint venture involving the major TV channels and broadband providers, to include the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, BT, TalkTalk and Arqiva and was previously chaired by […]

June 16, 2014

Roku’s Wood: ‘All TV to be streamed’

Roku CEO Anthony Wood has suggested that in the future, all TV is going to be streamed, and shrugged off competition from Apple, Amazon and Google. Wood shared his views on the convergence of Internet video and television in an interview with The Associated Press. As to where TV is headed, Wood suggested that it […]

June 16, 2014By Colin Mann

Pay-TV operators head STB food chain

Pay-TV operators are at the top of the set-top box food chain, with hardware OEMs and semiconductor vendors both functioning in a supporting role, according to ABI Research’s Set-top Box Opportunities and Leaders. The largest operators are responsible for the functional definition and direction, and have significant ownership over at least the logical layers of […]

June 16, 2014

Skyworth to integrate Inview services

Skyworth, the Chinese set-top box company and Inview Technology, the broadcast and OTT solutions specialist, will be offering operators a number of Inview’s services including advertising, Push-VoD and multiscreen on a range of Skyworth’s set-top boxes. Inview has also developed the platform for Skyworth’s HDMI dongle that enables users to view content such as VoD, […]

June 13, 2014